Elizabeth Taylor: Auction of a Lifetime - TV review
If you missed last night's 90-minute documentary I'll summarise it for you in ten words: Elizabeth Taylor had a bit of a thing for jewellery.
If you missed last night's 90-minute documentary I'll summarise it for you in ten words: Elizabeth Taylor had a bit of a thing for jewellery.
Well, to say "a bit" of a thing is probably underselling it somewhat – and Elizabeth Taylor was never undersold when it came to jewellery.
Indeed, she had a truly magnificent set of baubles, which were probably the first thing Richard Burton noticed when he met her on the set of Cleopatra fifty years ago.
She also had quite a lot of jewellery, and Burton made it his mission throughout their two marriages to add to her collection with more baubles, earrings and diamonds by embarking on a seemingly never-ending spending spree conducted in the great jewellery houses of the world.
But it clearly took its toll. The programme started off with the two being interviewed in 1970. She looked fit; he looked fit for the knackers' yard.
She followed him many years and several husbands later, but in much the same way that Elizabeth Taylor couldn't stay together with her seven husbands, her jewellery collection couldn't stay together without Elizabeth Taylor.
It was auctioned last December in New York for £135million, and last night's film told the stories behind some of the most expensive items in her collection.
And, blimey, what a collection: pearls owned by kings and worn by queens, a diamond the size of a baby's fist and a tiara that only royalty or Elizabeth Taylor could wear in public.
But, there was a nagging feeling while watching the programme.
She was clearly a needy individual to need to own so much, to need to be given presents all the time, to need to play with her priceless collection in much the same way that a child plays with its toys, yet all of her friends were convinced it was a testament to her "fabulousness".
Personally, I had my doubts. We know Elizabeth Taylor did good works for Aids sufferers, and I've no idea what else she spent her money on, but it might have been nice if instead of buying yet another whacking great diamond she'd spent a bit of cash on the poor or the homeless.
She could have sponsored a poor school in Africa with only a tiny proportion of the cash she was spending on the diamonds that probably came from the continent's mines.
And perhaps she did, but this wasn't the programme to enlighten us. Instead it gave us a picture of a magpie of a woman who only loved expensive rocks. No wonder she was friends with Michael Jackson – childhood stardom had left her as damaged as him.
I even felt sorry for Eddie Fisher, and having read the almost forgotten crooner's autobiography I doubt many people have ever said that.
Fisher was married to Taylor when she began her affair with Burton.
The Taylor-Fisher wedding followed soon after the death of Fisher's best friend Mike Todd, who married Elizabeth after her divorce from Michael Wilding, who met her after she divorced – er, hang on a minute, I've lost track...
So, anyway, Eddie Fisher was married to Elizabeth when she began her affair with Burton. To win her back Fisher went out and spent a small fortune on yellow diamond earrings (for her, obviously. I'm not suggesting he was going to wear them to cheer himself up or anything like that).
But Elizabeth was so dismissive of his grand gesture that he caught the next plane back to America and sent her the bill. In the end Mickey Rooney, who knew Elizabeth Taylor throughout her life, summed it up.
"It's sad," said the Hollywood veteran, who nowadays looks like an eggshell with eyes, "because you're not a woman, you're a walking jewellery store.
"I have always thought that if a woman is beautiful she doesn't need anything but her beauty."
So, chaps, next time she asks for something expensive, remember the words of Mickey Rooney.
Andrew Owen
